The campaign was set up by Dr Neil Jennings as a pilot project at the University of East Anglia in 2006. In the pilot year, the campaign helped to reduce energy usage by an average of over 10% in halls of residence, saving around 90 tonnes of and over £19,000 in energy expenditure. Jennings received significant support in developing the campaign from the Ben & Jerry'sClimate Change College and secured sponsorship of the campaign from E.ON, Odeon Cinemas, The Independent and FirstGroup. The campaign expanded to seven universities in 2007/08 and 11 in 2008/09 until in 2009 the Student Switch Off partnered with the National Union of Students as part of the Defra funded Degrees Cooler project, increasing the number of universities hosting the campaign by 22. Other partners included People & Planet, London Sustainability Exchange, Green Impact and Student Force for Sustainability. In 2009, the Student Switch Off was chosen by Carbon Leapfrog as one of the projects it would support with pro-bono legal and accountancy support. In 2012, ownership of the campaign was transferred to the National Union of Students and in 2014 the campaign received funding from the European Union to expand into four more European countries - Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania and Sweden. In 2017, the campaign received additional funding from the EU to expand to Bulgaria, Ireland and Romania and to develop advice materials for students living in the private rented sector to reduce their exposure to fuel poverty.
Results
N.B. The aggregate CO2 and money saving is variable between years even with a similar % reduction because of changing prices of energy, changing carbon emissions per kWh of electricity and changing number of months included in the analysis at different universities.
Awards
The Student Switch Off has received the following awards since its inception in 2006: November 2008: The Green Awards. Highly commended, Best Green Campaigner June 2010: National eWell-Being Awards. Highly commended, energy efficiency category March 2011: People and Environment Achievement Awards. Winner, Best Energy Saving Idea March 2011: Climate Week Awards. Finalist in Best Campaign category May 2012: Ashden Awards Winner
